Tag: neo-pagan

Update – Erin was kind enough to give us a fuller account of her work this summer (one can still find the first, shorter description below this new update). Here is Erin’s longer report:

Glastonbury Summer Volunteer Experience

To those who might not have had the chance to meet me, my name is Erin Leilani Kircher, and I will soon be a graduate of the Religious Studies department with a Minor in History from Humboldt State University.

Initially, I chose to major in Religious Studies to follow through on my lifetime passion of understanding ancient world cultures and traditions. Of those ancient curiosities, one specific set of mythology that has been a part of my life since I can remember attending preschool has been the legends of King Arthur and his knights. Part of what holds my attention to Arthurian legends, along with others throughout the ages, is how simple and tangible they appear on the surface, yet the more they are studied the more complex and dumbfounding they become. As my final year with Humboldt State University comes to a close, I have had the amazing opportunity to work alongside the Glastonbury Experience organization, which takes those who want to tour sites associated with Arthurian legend and Joseph of Arimithea (when he supposedly came to Britain) as well as other Celtic sites.

Regarding the specific role that I have been hired to be for the Glastonbury Experience organization, I will essentially be their experimental subject to test an official Glastonbury Pilgrimage route that they can present to the Glastonbury Town Council by this coming September 2016. Over the years, the Glastonbury Pilgrimage Center (part of the Glastonbury Experience organization) has only given visitors a rough map of the terrain of Glastonbury and nothing further. No tour guides, very few site markers, brief New Age spiritual backgrounds, and hardly any historical context behind what are considered to be sacred sites around Glastonbury. This is the core set of problems that I have been hired on to help solve for the Glastonbury Experience. Just this past week, I have officially completed their rough draft of the set pilgrimage route to Arthurian/Celtic Briton/Joseph of Arimithean sites. Exhausting would be a vast understatement.

In short, what I hope to accomplish in the next five weeks with my time as part of the Glastonbury Experience organization is to help establish a pilgrimage rout accessible to all platforms of spiritual paths. Currently, Glastonbury heavily focuses on more New Age Celtic and Goddess practices, and does not have a guided tour or pamphlet summary of the terrain that makes the area more contextual for those who do not subscribe to either sets of spiritual practice. In addition, the majority of the sites historically relevant to Arthurian legends have now been eradicated by the Industrial Revolution or swallowed by the landscape within the last 400 years, and are extremely difficult for people who are handicapped to access. Hopefully, the research and experience that I will be providing the Glastonbury Experience organization can help establish a pilgrimage route accessible to all spiritual backgrounds and physical abilities, as well as helping historical sites that have been lost through time around the terrain become remembered again.

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Original Post – Here is an short description from one of our current students, Erin Kircher, on her summer in Glastonbury, England. We hope to have a full write up very soon on her experience. In the meantime, here is what Erin is up to:

“Essentially, my official duty is to take pilgrimage through the sacred sites associated with Arthurian legend and Joseph of Arimathea, while also providing a detailed journal and final formal analysis objectively describing how the experience would be for someone who is not familiar with any aspect of King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea. What the Glastonbury Experience organization I am a volunteer for wants to accomplish is an official pilgrimage route that they can present to the Glastonbury Town Council, so that tourists and practitioners of Neo-Avalonian/Pagan spirituality can experience a religious-like endeavor similar to what is offered at other holy sites around the world. At the moment the project is very underground and evolving, and they are very excited to have me as an academic Religious Studies and History student to provide a young millennial perspective, so I will be introduced to other scholars within the Somerset region for further education and research. This is a project that not too many of my fellow students can experience, so I am extremely grateful to be involved with something so massive as an establishment of an official Arthurian pilgrimage route!”